Djamel Ameziane
| place_of_birth = Al Jesera, Algeria | date_of_death = | place_of_death = | detained_at = Guantanamo | id_number = 310 | group = | alias = | charge = No charge (extrajudicial detention) | penalty = | status = Still held in Guantanamo | occupation = | spouse = | parents = | children = }} Djamel Saiid Ali Ameziane is an Algerian citizen, and former resident of Canada, who is currently held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.Third Montrealer on detainee list at Guantanamo, Globe and Mail, March 10, 2006 - mirror His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 310. Joint Task Force Guantanamo counter-terrorism analysts report that he was born on April 14, 1967, in Al Jesera, Algeria. With the assistance of a legal team led by Burlington, Vermont attorney Robert D. Rachlin, Ameziane launched a writ of habeas corpus, Civil Action No. 05-392.Vt. lawyers represent Guantanamo detainees, WCAX Rachlin has said: "There's nothing here that shows that he so much as held a firearm or did anything against the United States -- he's one of those guys who were at the wrong place at the wrong time. There's nothing more here than guilt by association." As of July 29, 2010, Djamel Saiid Ali Amezian has been held at Guantanamo for eight years five months. Interrogated by Canadian Security officials in Guantanamo In mid-July Canadian courts compelled the Canadian government to make available tapes made of the interrogration of Canadian youth Omar Khadr by Canadian security officials in 2004. mirror On July 27 Michelle Shephard, writing in the ''Toronto Star, reporting that other Canadian security officials had interviewed Ahcene Zemiri, Djamel Ameziane and Mohamedou Ould Slahi, three other Guantanamo captives who had lived in Canada. Combatant Status Review A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for the tribunal, listing the alleged facts that led to his detainment. His memo accused him of the following: Djamel Said Ali Ameziane v. George Walker Bush A writ of habeas corpus, Djamel Said Ali Ameziane v. George Walker Bush, was submitted on Djamel Said Ali Ameziane's behalf. In response, on 11 July 2005 the Department of Defense released eighteen pages of unclassified documents related to his Combatant Status Review Tribunal to his lawyers. These documents were published, together with 178 others, in September 2007. Legal Sufficiency Review On 26 November 2004 OARDEC Legal Advisor Commander James R. Crisfield drafted a Legal Sufficiency Review. He reported that Tribunal panel 7 convened on 21 October 2004 in Djamel Saiid Ali Ameziane's absence. He concluded that the Tribunal was "legally sufficient". Protective Order A "protective order" was filed on behalf of Murat Kurnaz and "Jamel Ameziane" on April 11, 2005. The motion prevents the US Government from transferring either of the two men from Guantanamo without giving their lawyers advance notice. The factors for and against continuing to detain Ameziane were among the 121 that the Department of Defense released on March 3, 2006.detainees ARB|ARB_Factors_Set_2_1046-1160.pdf#11}} Factors for and against the continued detention (.pdf) of Djamel Saiid Ali Ameziane Administrative Review Board - pages 11-13 The following primary factors favor continued detention The following primary factors favor release or transfer Transcript Ameziane met with his Assisting Military Officer for a pre-hearing interview, but he chose not to attend the hearing itself. A two page summarized transcript of the unclassified session of the Board hearing was published on March 3, 2006. Second annual Administrative Review Board A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Djamel Saiid Ali Ameziane's second annual Administrative Review Board, on 25 March 2006. The memo listed factors for and against his continued detention. The following primary factors favor continued detention for a Dutch passport and driver's license, both of which were already altered with the detainee's picture on them. :#In late 1995, the detainee traveled to Canada from Austria with a fake passport. :#In late 2000, the detainee paid 800 Canadian Dollars for a stolen French passport. :#In October–November 2000, the detainee flew from Montreal to London, England and then to Tehran, Iran. From Tehran, the detainee traveled by taxi to the Iran/Afghanistan border and to Kabul. The detainee presented his fraudulent passport to the Iranian border guards and purported to be a French Muslim traveling to Afghanistan for personal reasons. :#The detainee assigned himself his first alias, Abdul Rahim, while living in a guest house in Afghanistan. The detainee gave the second alias to Pakistani military authorities upon his arrest to prevent them from discovering he was Algerian. The detainee continued to use this second alias and false place of birth when interviewed by United States authorities in Afghanistan and at Camp X-Ray until approximately 23 March 2002. :b. Connections/Associations :#The detainee attended the Al Umah Mosque in Montreal, Canada. :#In late 2000, while attending the Al Umah Mosque, the detainee met a Tunisian who gave the detainee approximately 1,200 to 1,500 Canadian Dollars and told him to go to a guest house in Kati Parwan, Afghanistan. :#Upon arriving in Kabul, the detainee went to the suspect guest house, Kati Parwan in Kati Parwan, a neighborhood of Kabul. The detainee stated that the majority of boarders in the house were Taliban fighters there awaiting training or resting after returning from the front lines, but others were just immigrants. :#In February 2001, the detainee took a taxi to Jalalabad asking for the Arab guest house in the Intelligence neighborhood of Jalalabad, named for the Taliban Intelligence headquarters located there. :c. Intent ::The detainee decided while in Canada that he wanted to go to Afghanistan because he believed the Taliban had created the only country which was truly Islamic, and the detainee wanted to live somewhere with only Sharia Law. :d. Other Relevant Data :#The detainee was captured by Pakistani military in a village mosque, loaded into trucsk and confined to an army barracks for the night. :#The following day, the detainee was loaded onto a bus with many others. Suddenly the bus erupted in shouting and gunfire. The detainee allegedly dove to the floor and crawled to the middle aisle. Allegedly, many people fell on top of the detainee, breaking his left arm. The detainee then crawled out of a window of the bus and hid under a nearby small bridge. The detainee was again arrested and taken to a nearby prison in Kohat, Pakistan. :#After five to seven days at the prison in Kohat, the detainee was transferred to a hospital for his broken arm, where he remained for approximately two weeks. The Pakistani military eventually turned over the detainee and the other prisoners to the United States who then flew them to Kandahar. }} The following primary factors favor release or transfer Press reports The Globe and Mail suggested that Ameziane's Tunisian contact could have been Raouf Hannachi. Michelle Shephard, writing in the Toronto Star speculated on the possibility Djamel might be transferred to Canada. Shephard wrote that Djamel might be the unexpected beneficiary of the 2002 Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement: Shephard's article also addressed the 2005 allegation that Djamel attendance at the Al Salaam Mosque in Montreal justified his continued detention, and the 2006 allegation attendance at the Al Umah Mosque in Montreal justified his continued detention. Djamel's lawyer, Wells Dixon said Djamel acknowledged attending a variety of mosques during the five years he lived in MOntreal in the 1990s, but he could no longer remember their names. Dixon challenged whether simple attendance at a mosque was a valid justification for alleging ties to terrorism. On August 22, 2008 the Canadian Press reported that Ameziane claimed he had been subjected to a form of water torture. mirror Wells Dixon, one of his lawyers, reported that: "...guards at the base placed a water hose between his nose and mouth and ran it for several minutes." The Canadian Press quoted from a letter Ameziane wrote: : Repatriation On 22 October 2008 a coalition of organizations including Montreal's Anglican Dioscese, and human rights groups such as Amnesty International issued a press release about their plans to sponsor Djamel's request for admittance to Canada as a refugee. mirror mirror mirror On February 10, 2009, CBC News confirmed that was among the five Guantanamos captive to have a refugee sponsoring group working on his behalf. The other four men were Maassoum Abdah Mouhammad, a Syrian Kurd, and Hassan Anvar and two other Uyghur captives from Guantanamo. On April 17, 2009, the Anglican Journal quoted human rights workers and church officials about the delay in Ameziane's repatriation. Janet Dench of the Canadian Council for Refugees speculated that Ameziane's repatriation had been stalled by the new reviews of the Guantanamo captives ordered by United States President Barack Obama. Barry Clarke, Bishop of the Anglican diocese of Montreal, which is helping to sponsor Ameziane, wrote about how he responded to Canadians critical of the Church's initiative on Ameziane's behalf. He called Ameziane's captivity in Guantanamo "an injustice". He acknowledged that he couldn't guarantee that Ameziane was not tied to terrorism. But he said his workers, and other human rights groups, had looked into his background. The article quoted the conclusions of the Center for Constitutional Rights: References External links * Guantánamo Algerian Returns Home; Will Obama Suspend Further Transfers? Andy Worthington July 29, 2010 * Ameziane v. Obama / Ameziane v. United States Center for Constitutional Rights Category:Algerian extrajudicial prisoners of the United States Category:Living people Category:1967 births Category:People held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp